Friday, January 2, 2009

Blind Faith

Via Christian G at NiT comes this quote from Roane County Emergency Management Director William Rose:

So, that is a resounding question from the people in the county is "all this information that's been put out I don't know what to believe." Well, I'm telling you what to believe. You believe what these people down here are telling you to believe because I'm seeing the data just like everybody else is. I don't understand it all, but they explain it to me, and I got faith in these people down here and what they do.

Wow, if I didn’t know better I’d say Roane County’s Emergency Management Director just told the people he’s supposed to protect to shut up, quit whining, and do what they’re told.

Let’s see, the last time someone in the government told me to believe them, we ended up sending over 4,000 American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq. There was also the time the EPA told folks in Manhattan that the air around Ground Zero was safe. And then there was FEMA handing out toxic trailers to those left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

So I can't blame the good people of Roane County for being a little skeptical about what they're hearing from the government right now, can you? Especially when what they see with their own lying eyes contradicts what they've been told by "these people down here":

Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

At issue is coal's content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or "whole," coal that they aren't a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.

Fly ash uranium sometimes leaches into the soil and water surrounding a coal plant, affecting cropland and, in turn, food. People living within a "stack shadow"—the area within a half- to one-mile (0.8- to 1.6-kilometer) radius of a coal plant's smokestacks—might then ingest small amounts of radiation. Fly ash is also disposed of in landfills and abandoned mines and quarries, posing a potential risk to people living around those areas.

Hey, Mr. Rose. Some of "these good people" are getting sick. Believe that one, if you can.